A piece of the AllSpark
by King Steve
Summary: After Megatron's demise, the Decepticons split into two factions led by Shockwave and Starscream. Both want the last shard of the AllSpark recovered by Optimus Prime, while a lone Autobot comes to Earth, searching for vengeance.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first ever fanfic so while I welcome reviews and constructive criticism, please no flames. Be gentle.

I do not claim any ownership of Transformers, or any of the characters.

The battle was over; Megatron was a smoking ruin lying on the ground. The same jets that had chased Starscream over the city had turned back to attack Megatron before that puny fleshling boy had pushed the AllSpark into his chest. How the Autobots and humans had managed to defeat Cybertron's mightiest warriors he'd never know, but they had, and the only thing to do now was to escape.

Starscream pushed out the "how" and "why" out of his mind, questions like that could wait until he was safely out of Earth's atmosphere and away from these pesky planes still behind him. Four planes, much like his alternate mode, were in hot pursuit, firing missiles at him. As one missile exploded and pelted him with shrapnel - not damaging, but still very painful- he transformed in midair, thrusting his right arm forward and launching a missile at the nearest plane, before transforming back into a jet and launching a pair of missiles at two other planes, leaving just one remaining. Before his targeting systems could lock onto it, a blast of energy slammed into him from below, searing his silver hide black under the wing and causing oily black smoke to spew from the wound.

_Ironhide, I thought I'd terminated him._Starscream now wished he had made sure that infernal Autobot had stayed down after he had rained fire on him and Ratchet. Before he could even think of returning fire, Starscream sensed another squadron of fighter planes closing in on him. He could fly circles around the fleshlings all day if he hadn't sustained these injuries, but a few humans had gotten lucky hits on him earlier in the battle, and he decided now was definitely the time to retreat. He pointed his nose towards the sky and pushed his engines to maximum, quickly outpacing the Human fighters. Within seconds he was miles away, climbing high into the stratosphere and further up, until the city below him was no more than a speck of dust. Even higher, within a minute he had left Earth's atmosphere and was leaving Earth orbit.

Finally he was out of range. He knew the humans had no spacecraft that could be quickly scrambled, and the few ships they had, "shuttles," as they called them, weren't combat equipped and would be a pushover, should they somehow try to pursue him. He was safe for the time being.

Now he didn't have to concentrate on fighting, he took stock of the battle. Megatron, Devastator, and Blackout were all dead. He had heard nothing from Barricade, Frenzy, or Scorponok. He assumed Prime and his little band of Autobots had killed them off, too. It was a shame about Devastator and Blackout; Devastator was one of the most competent machines he had ever worked with, his military genius and brute strength had been undeniable, hence why Starscream had hand picked him to search for the Allspark. And Blackout had also been a first class operator, and Starscream had not particularly _liked _Blackout, who had been known to many as Megatron's Lackey, as the humans would say; but he had respected the massive Deception for his strength, and the fact that he was another flyer. All his sorrow for losing his comrades, however, was overshadowed by the sheer delight that beamed from his spark now that Megatron was dead. Megatron; the incompetent who had kept the war going on for thousands of years too long, Starscream was sure that had he led the Decepticons from the start, Prime and his followers would have been reduced to so much melted slag millennia ago.

Starscream had never made it secret how he felt about serving Megatron, and had waited thousands of years for his leader to slip up. And having led the Decepticons in Megatron's absence for ten thousand years, he had acquired a taste for leadership, and was only too glad that Megatron's "glorious" return had lasted less than an hour. As Starscream set a course back to Cybertron, his mind turned to the mantle of leadership. It would be down to him now to lead the Decepticons. Others would protest his claim; some might even go so far as to challenge him outright. But none would win. He was _Lord _Starscream, rightful leader of the Decepticons and Emperor of Cybertron. He looked forward to reaching his home world to claim the prize he had coveted for thousands of years.

**Under the Laurentian Abyss – 6 weeks later**

Unlike Starscream, Scorponok had no personal ambition, no desire to lead, not much in the way of coherent thought whatsoever. He was driven purely by his animal instincts, which were usually just to hunt down the enemy, a job that he found some level of basic pleasure in. Scorponok was tunnelling his way under the ocean floor in search of Megatron's remains. He hadn't been there for the actual battle. Scorponok was a hunter; he stalked his prey and picked them off one by one. Pitched battles weren't what he was built for, and considering the damage he had taken from his fight against the human soldiers and their aircraft in the desert, days earlier, he was fortunate not to have been involved. He probably wouldn't have fared too well against the likes of Prime or Ironhide, not out in the open, at any rate.

He could tell he was getting closer now. He could sense the radiation from the Allspark. It was almost straight above him. Tunnelling upwards, he cleared the sea bed and was stunned momentarily by the immense pressure of the water. Regaining his senses, he quickly located the bodies of his comrades; Devastator's face had been shattered by an energy blast, as well as a large number of impact wounds all over his body. He was definitely dead, as was Blackout, not as badly wounded as Devastator had been, most of the damage was to the head and chest, and looked as if someone had gotten a few lucky shots rather than having succumbed to the sheer amount of firepower that Devastator had. Scorponok, being more like an animal than a sentient being, didn't normally feel much in the way of emotions, but was stricken with a mourning sadness at the sight of Blackout, his master, lying inert on the sea bed. He crawled past them and passed the battered, headless corpse of Bonecrusher, until he found his target; Megatron.

The mightiest Decepticon to have ever lived laid there Motionless, pieces of him had been blown away in the battle. One of his legs was missing, and his left arm was a twisted wreck, though something was off about his appearance. He was giving off radiation, more than what Scorponok's sensors told him would be expected from the Allspark. Barricade had sent him down to look for Megatron, to see if anything could be salvaged of the Allspark in his chest. Even a few pieces might be enough to grant life. But the Allspark- still inside Megatron- had been changed somehow. It had changed Megatron's appearance as well, the wounds he sustained in battle weren't blackened anymore, there were no exposed circuits, he had seemed to have started healing somehow.

Scorponok sensed very faint life signs within Megatron, it wasn't much, but it was still there. It hadn't killed him after all; Megatron had somehow survived the force of the AllSpark. He was in stasis lock, the transformers' equivalent of a coma. This was big. His sensors worked overtime, trying to gain as much data as he could on Megatron's condition. In a millisecond he had processed the data, compressed it and passed it through ultrahigh frequency radio waves to Barricade. Megatron was alive!

**Cybertron**

High on a ragged metal cliff, the stoic warrior Grimlock lay, looking down over the Decepticon forces below while trying to keep his massive form from being seen. He had no idea what they were up to, and he didn't care, as long as he stopped them from doing whatever they were doing. His optics glared as he zoomed in on the Decepticons, trying to discern who they were. He spotted three seekers - Decepticon warriors that transformed into sleek and deadly aircraft. Dirge, Thrust, and Ramjet, they were three of Starscream's followers, even though Starscream had been missing for years, hunting for Megatron and the AllSpark.

The Decepticons on Cybertron were now under the cold, analytical command of Shockwave, a ruthless and cunning warrior whose strength rivalled even Grimlock's. They had been sworn enemies as far back as Grimlock cared to remember, sharing a heated rivalry even stronger, he thought, than that between Megatron and Prime. Along with the three seekers were Blitzwing, a heavily armoured and sadistic Decepticon who enjoyed pulling apart smaller Autobots with his hands before blasting them to pieces with his pulse cannon; and Onslaught, a brilliant tactician and one of the highest ranking Decepticons under Shockwave's command.

Grimlock brought his weapons online and activated his targeting system. Crosshairs appeared over the face of Onslaught. As the most powerful of the five Decepticons before him, he'd have to be taken care of first.

"You're not seriously going to take on all five by yourself, Grimlock?"

"Of course I am, weakling. If you don't want to fight, get back to base and leave me to it."

If Springer had been human, he would have sighed. He'd had the bad fortune to have been paired up with Grimlock - the craziest Autobot ever created - to weaken the Decepticons by taking out a number of their key players. Springer admitted to himself that if they could pull it off and take out these Decepticons, it would put the Decepticon army in a much weaker position. _If, _was a big word, though; Springer would have had trouble fighting against any of the Decepticons down there in a one on one fight, and Grimlock was proposing the two of them take on five Decepticons.

"I'm not going to back out, but you better have something good planned."

Without answering, Grimlock double checked his aim, charged up the energy cannon on his right arm to full power, and fired a burst of energy at Onslaught. Before the sound of his shot even reached Springer's audio processors, Grimlock had leapt down from the cliff, a projectile weapon extending from each shoulder and firing a salvo of explosive rounds and the three seekers. The shot from his energy cannon struck Onslaught squarely in the face, burning away his optics and vocal processors, rendering him blind and twitching on the 

ground in pain. The three seekers quickly transformed into their aircraft modes and took to the air, while Grimlock fired another salvo skywards and charged at Blitzwing before the Decepticons could even register what was going on. Springer's wrist cannon extended from his forearm and he took aim, unable to get a decent shot at Blitzwing as he was wrestling with Grimlock.

Instead he focussed on trying to shoot down the seekers, he scored a few hits on Dirge, but nothing serious, they were simply too fast for him. Thrust fired missiles at Grimlock and the explosive impact sent him flying. Now Springer took aim at Blitzwing and fired off three shots. The energy rounds did very little to the Decepticon's thick armour, and Blitzwing launched himself at Springer. Grimlock was too busy firing at the seekers to help. He transformed into his alternate mode, a large and powerful fighting vehicle, and drilled Dirge with a pair of shots through his centre mass. That didn't help Springer at all, though. Blitzwing fired a volley of shots from his chest cannon that blew his left leg off at the knee. Pain seared through him as Blitzwing picked him up by the neck and pulled his arm off at the shoulder. Springer's systems nearly overloading, he screamed in pain as Blitzwing casually tossed his arm aside and prepared to pull off the other one.

"Should I pull off another arm or perhaps a leg this time, Autobot?" Springer tried in vain to bring his wrist cannon to bear at Blitzwing's maniacally grinning head. The larger robot crushed the weapon in his hand, and his grip around Springer's neck tightened. He struggled to free himself, but was powerless against Blitzwing's superior strength. In his pain and desperation to escape, Springer didn't notice Grimlock approaching Blitzwing from behind; he didn't notice until the tip of Grimlock's energy sword burst through the Decepticon's chest. Blitzwing dropped Springer, stunned by Grimlock's attack. He'd pierced Blitzwing's spark chamber, and the Decepticon was as good as dead now, but Grimlock wasn't finished. He pulled the sword up, cutting through Blitzwing's chest and shoulder, and severing one of his arms, before the sword was free. In the same motion, Grimlock swung the sword backhanded and sliced Blitzwing's head clean off.

Through the cloud of pain and damage reports flooding across his vision, Springer made out the smoking ruins of two seekers, and the still twitching form of Onslaught. Grimlock aimed his cannon at Onslaught and fired once, blasting his head apart. Grimlock saw the look of disdain on Springer's face, he'd been taught by Prime to never gun down a helpless enemy.

"This is war," Grimlock grunted, "they're the enemy. If you don't approve, that's just tough." Grimlock then called for assistance from the other Autobots in the area to collect Springer and take him home for repairs, before walking off.

"Why don't you wait for the others?" Springer said to Grimlock, an offer as much as it was a question.

"Thrust escaped. I'm going to follow him." Then he walked off, following the vapour trail Thrust left in his wake.

Following Thrust, while important to him, wasn't the only reason he declined to wait for the other Autobots. He worked best alone, always had. He couldn't bring himself to join the other Autobots. He'd gone into battle shoulder to shoulder with several before, and he hadn't said no when Springer showed up, though it wasn't part of his plan to have worked with a partner. He was a loner, didn't like the company of the other Autobots. He hadn't always been this way. He'd had friends, a long time ago. Slag, Swoop, Snarl, and Sludge. The Dynobots. Together they'd been five of the strongest, most powerful transformers on Cybertron, and had very nearly won the war at one point, until Shockwave killed them all.

Grimlock remembered that battle vey well. The five of them had fought off a massive force of Decepticons and taken the fight back to them, even nearly killing Megatron at one point. But Shockwave, protecting his master, had had the entire battlefield carpet bombed by seekers and artillery, raining firepower down on them like a coward, rather than facing his defeat honourably. The devastation was so complete that out of five Dynobots and legions of Decepticons, only Grimlock had survived. His team, his only friends, had been wiped out, and he had vowed that day to avenge them by killing Shockwave, whatever it took.

He stared at the vapor trail quickly dissipating in the sky, calculated the vector Thrust had taken, and transformed, following the same heading he estimated taken by Thrust. He rolled forwards, through the wastelands of Nova Cronum, what had once been a large, prosperous city. His armoured hide ploughing through the debris of thousands of years of war. His sensors showed that he was alone, already miles away from Springer and the others. Just the way he liked it. There was a risk that he could be ambushed by Decepticons at any point, his scanners, while displaying no signs of life, were not infallible, and Decepticons could be hiding anywhere, ready to pounce on him.

_Let them come, _Grimlock thought. He was the mightiest Autobot created, and easily more than a match for almost any Decepticon. He pushed those thoughts aside, while relishing the idea of another fight he knew he had more important things to accomplish. Following the direction Thrust took, Grimlock kept rolling until his sensors detected Decepticons in the air, a few miles ahead of him. Although his alternate mode was a heavily armoured fighting vehicle that was well equipped for fighting both ground and air targets, and he was confident he could easily handle the Decepticons before him, they'd report him as soon as he revealed himself, and Shockwave would surely send more troops to attack him, slowing him down in his task of finding and eliminating Shockwave.

The pair had fought each other twice previously, and both times they had nearly killed each other. The last battle, over a hundred years ago, had left them both shattered on the battlefield, they had literally ripped chunks out of each other, inflicting blows that would have left other Cybertronians crippled or dead, but they kept going. Grimlock out of a burning hatred for Shockwave; and Shockwave, because, creature of logic he was, realised the threat Grimlock posed to the Decepticons and needed to eiminate him. The only problem was they were too evenly matched. Grimlock had the edge in physical strength and brute force; shockwave had superior speed and firepower. When they fought neither had managed to gain a significant upper hand against the other, neither Autobot or Decepticon had dared to get between them, their battles were that savage.

Transforming back into his robot mode, Grimlock tried to sneak past the Decepticon patrols, keeping low to the ground, moving slowly and silently, which was quite a feat, considering his huge frame was larger than even that of Optimus Prime. Stealth was not one of Grimlock's natural attributes, he had been designed for power and strength, as a war machine - one of all too few that had joined the Autobots at the start of the war. Sneaking around like this went against every instinct in Grimlock's cybernetic brain. What he needed to do here was to capture an isolated Decepticon and beat out of them the location of Shockwave.

Scanning the area, he quickly found what he was looking for, a small Decepticon warrior he'd not seen before; not a seeker, and didn't appear particularly strong or fast. This was his target. As he prepared to move, something caught his attention from above, a strange aircraft shape. Metallic, obviously, but no design he had ever seen before. Was this a Decepticon? He wondered, or some kind of alien. It had descended from space, so there was a good chance it was alien in origin. It was none of his concern, he decided, until said aircraft paused in midair and transformed into a shape he instantly recognised. _Starscream._

Starscream had been gone for thousands of years, in search of the AllSpark, and supposedly, Megatron. Though as Grimlock and every other being on Cyberton knew, Starscream cared nothing for his leader, and was searching for the AllSpark for his own purposes. As far as he could tell, Starscream had come alone, had he succeeded in finding the AllSpark and brought it back here? Not likely, seeing as he was alone and looking very battered. Grimlock calculated that Starscream would report back to Shockwave, whatever the circumstances of his return. If he followed Starscream, logic dictated that he would lead him to Shockwave. Then Grimlock could take down both Decepticons in one fell swoop.

Slowly, he crept closer to the two Decepticons, aware that he could be discovered any minute. He managed to follow them into a giant tower, the Decepticon Headquarters, he guessed. He managed to keep out of sight and was straining his audio sensors to listen to what was being said. Grimlock wasn't so obsessed with revenge against Shockwave that he would ignore any chance of gaining some valuable intelligence on the Decepticons. Before he could listen properly, his internal radio came to life.

_"All Autobots, come in. This is Air Raid. I've just received a transmission from Optimus Prime. He and the others are alive and residing on the planet Earth. Coordinates as follows." _Grimlock recorded the transmission as standard procedure. He had no interest in going to Earth to meet up with the other Autobots. He was saddened by the rest of the transmission, in which Air Raid replayed Optimus' message, and informed them that the AllSpark had been destroyed, that they could never bring life to Cybertron.

Grimlock was sure that Starscream was relaying a similar message to Shockwave, and decided to focus on that instead. He closed the encrypted channel he kept open for the other Autobots to communicate with him. He only ever kept it open to listen, seldom did he speak to any Autobots, over the airwaves or otherwise. He activated his missile targeting system and kept an eye on Shockwave. Starscream, provided he could keep him on the ground, would be easy enough to handle. Shockwave was the one to worry about, he wanted to bring as much firepower to bear on the purple Decepticon as possible, hoping to do him some serious damage before going in close for the kill.

Grimlock watched, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, when Shockwave brought up a large screen that dominated one wall and played back a sequence of events on an alien world. Earth, Grimlock guessed, from the chatter he was intercepting. He watched as the image focussed on a group of alien aircraft, similar in design to Starscream's new alternate mode, fire wave after wave of missiles into Megatron and consuming him in fire. The image then zoomed out to show an injured Prime, a badly wounded Megatron, and some tiny, fleshy bipedal creature holding a cube - The AllSpark - and shoving it into Megatron's exposed Spark chamber.

Grimlock didn't know how to feel, one the one hand, Megatron was dead, which was something to celebrate, at least. But that creature that destroyed the AllSpark, Grimlock hoped Prime stamped on it for that. Not that Prime would ever do such a thing, as soft sparked as he was. That was effectively the end of their race. No AllSpark, no new life to Cybertron. Oh well, Grimlock mused. He liked being alone. No AllSpark meant there would be no more new annoying imbeciles to get in his way. He charged his missile launchers and shoulder cannon. Ignoring the news, he took aim and prepared for his revenge.

"Megatron isn't dead," Shockwave said as a matter of fact.

"I saw him die, Shockwave," Starscream could barely conceal the grin on his face as he told Shockwave of Megatron's demise. "The Allspark was merged with his Spark. No one could survive that."

"Shortly before you returned, I received a transmission from Barricade, still on Earth."

"Barricade's alive? I assumed the Autobots had destroyed him. Why wasn't he with us during the battle? The coward." Starscream didn't mention the fact that he had bailed as soon as Megatron had fallen.

"He did not specify any details in that regard," Shockwave said flatly. "Though he and Scorponok are both in hiding on Earth, and have located Megatron. According to the data from Scorponok's readings, Megatron is still alive. We must quickly get to him if we are to revive him. We could be there within-"

"We will do no such thing!" Starscream snapped. "_Lord_Megatron has failed us time and again. Thanks to him Cybertron has no hope of being revived. We cannot rebuild our army, nor can we achieve Decepticon supremacy throughout the universe. Megatron is _dead!_"

Shockwave played through the video images Starscream captured during the battle, replayed the last part, something strange. Prime was bent over Megatron's body, doing _something_to it, though he couldn't tell what. He enhanced the image and played it again, zooming in as far as he could. Prime put Megatron into a more peaceful position and said something, Shockwave couldn't tell as there was no audio recording - sloppy work from Starscream, typical of him.

"Starscream look there, a piece of the AllSpark. Not all of it was destroyed. We can use it to restore Lord Megatron."

Starscream was horrified at such a notion. He was rightful leader now, and nothing would stop him now. He had to stop this before it started. He raised his right arm and fired three missiles at Shockwave, transforming before they hit their target and taking to the sky to attack from above. Shockwave managed to shield himself from most of the impact, his heavy armour holding up against Starscream's attack. He raised his left arm, aimed the energy cannon at the end of his wrist (instead of a hand) at Starscream's form and fired a long burst of energy, missing the seeker but throwing him off a steep attack angle. Starscream pulled out of his attack and sped away, Shockwave, unable to fly, did not pursue him. He had plans to make.

Shockwave called on his radio for Soundwave, the dark blue spy Decepticon, to join him. Within a minute the tall, stoic robot was before him.

"Soundwave, Megatron is alive but may not be for long, and there is a small remnant of the AllSpark, which may be enough to revive him. But we have to leave for Earth quickly. Starscream is determined to stop us from reaching Megatron, in an attempt to claim leadership of the Decepticons."

"What are the odds of successfully reviving Megatron?" Soundwave asked in his characteristic monotone voice."

"I calculate thirty six percent chance of restoring Megatron to life, provided we encounter no resistance from Starscream."

Soundwave nodded, not needing to mention the fact that Starscream was openly making a grab for power, and would do everything in his power to keep them from reviving Megatron. In seconds, both Shockwave and Soundwave had reformatted their alternate modes, optimised for space flight, and prepared to launch.

"Shockwave!" Grimlock screamed as he unleashed all of his missiles at the purple war machine. Catching Shockwave unaware, the missiles smashed into his chest armour, seriously damaging his armour, but luckily failing to penetrate through to his vital components beneath. Another salvo like that and Shockwave could be killed. Assuming the attack came from Starscream, or at least one of Starscream's followers, Shockwave looked upwards, a bad mistake on his part. The barrel of Grimlock's cannon erupted as blue white energy tore through the air and smashed into Shockwave's shoulder. Shockwave had located Grimlock and managed to react in time to avoid the shot hitting the same spot on his chest the missiles had hit. He returned fire with his gun arm, striking Grimlock in the midsection and knocking him off his feet, undamaged, but stunned by the impact.

Shockwave and Soundwave together launched a massive barrage of fire, aiming not at Grimlock, but at the ceiling above him, causing untold tonnes of metal to rain down on Grimlock, trapping him. As he struggled to free himself, the two Decepticons transformed into comet shaped vehicles - the standard Cybertronian form for space travel, and launched at immense speed from the planet's surface. Knowing they would be out of sight before he freed himself from the tangle of metal, Grimlock calculated their trajectory and recorded it, as soon as he was free he would chase them both down.

Starscream looked at the Decepticons assembled before him. Skyfire, his oldest friend, as fast and agile as he himself, though not quite the warrior Starscream was. He was a fearless, if a little reluctant, warrior, a little naïve at times, but an asset to have for this mission. Thundercracker and Skywarp, on the other hand, practically lived for battle. They enjoyed nothing more than raining fire and destruction down on their enemies. Opposite in many ways to Skyfire, they favoured destruction over precision. Between the four of them, they should be able to handle Shockwave and whoever else he had taken with him to bring Megatron back from the Dead. All three of them were loyal to Starscream, and would fight in his name without second thought. Absent though, were the other seekers from his squadron; Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust. He had tried to hail them, but they hadn't answered to his transmission. Typical, but no matter. The four of them would go. More glory for them.

"Decepticons, Prepare for flight. We are headed to a planet called Earth, to retrieve what's left of the AllSpark, before Shockwave gets to it."

"Is there any real point to this?" Skyfire asked, "There's not enough of the AllSpark to create new Decepticons, and the Autobots wont let him just take it from them."

"The Autobots are our enemies, as well as shockwave!" Starscream snapped at him. "We are the only ones worthy of possessing the AllSpark. According to Shockwave's data, there is a chance the AllSpark will regenerate itself. Even if it doesn't, we can still dominate Earth and Cybertron. Once the Autobots are dealt with on Earth, we will return to Cybertron and wipe out the Autobots once and for all."

Skyfire said nothing, but failed to see the point of continuing the war against the Autobots, now that the AllSpark, the reason for the war in the first place, was gone. Skyfire seriously doubted that the fraction of the AllSpark the Autobots possessed would make any real difference. But he was a loyal friend to Starscream, and would follow him in his mission. As Shockwave and Soundwave had done minutes before, they reconfigured themselves for space flight, transformed, and launched into space to intercept Shockwave. None of them saw a lone Autobot on the ground, watching them, transforming his own body for interstellar travel, and following them into deep space.


	2. Chapter 2

Optimus Prime watched the construction crews working on the Autobots' new base with an immense sense of gratitude. Merely days after the Mission City battle, Secretary of Defence John Keller had shown his appreciation for what the Autobots had done by pulling some strings in the military and organising the conversion of an abandoned underground missile silo in the Nevada Desert into a permanent base for the Autobots, partly done out of the mutual desire to keep the Autobots' existence a secret, and also to show them that Earth was their home now, for as long as they wanted to stay.

It was still in the early stages of construction, but the human crews had been working around the clock for weeks to meet the specifications requested by Prime and Ratchet, who had drawn up the plans together. The silo had enough high ceilings and open space underground that Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Ironhide could move around inside without hitting their heads on the ceiling, a problem that still plagued Optimus for the moment. One of his specifications had been to make the ceilings higher, so that he would have plenty of headroom, as well as any other Autobots who made their way to Earth.

Every night since the battle, Prime had driven up to the crest of a hill that was on top of the silo/base and replayed his message to any Autobots still out there. While the others had taken on roles within the community – Bumblebee still remained as Sam's guardian, Ironhide had been "volunteered" to safeguard the Lennox family- and was still griping about it- and Ratchet tried his hand at life as a rescue vehicle and ambulance, a role to which he was fairly accustomed, being the Autobots' chief medic. Optimus had decided to supervise the construction of the new base in his spare time, which would be more necessary now that there were Autobots on their way here. He had already received transmissions from two Autobots: Cliffjumper, Bumblebee's twin; and Air Raid, one of far too few flight capable Autobots. They would arrive within two days, Prime hadn't informed the others yet, he had planned to tell them tonight, they would all gather at the base, along with Sam and Mikaela. Apart from their public duties, all the Autobots had to patrol for signs of Scorponok and Barricade, who hadn't been accounted for in the battle, as well as any other Decepticons who may have come to Earth.

He was looking forward to the evening, to seeing his fellow Autobots as well as Sam and Mikaela, tonight would be a cause for celebration, although he hoped some of them wouldn't celebrate too hard; he remembered how even more trigger happy and excitable Ironhide became when he'd had too much refined energon. The last thing he'd need was a drunk weapons specialist blasting their base apart before it was even finished. The memories of Ironhide intoxicated brought a smile to his weary face. It had been a long time since they'd had a cause to celebrate, he might even allow himself a small amount of energon tonight.

Sam was lying on Bumblebee's hood, eyes closed, enjoying the sunshine while he waited for Mikaela to come out of school. He'd finished over an hour ago but she had stayed behind for an extra hour to help out a friend studying. He looked at his watch and closed his eyes once again. She'd be out any minute now. He took some time to reflect on the past few months with Mikaela since he'd met the Autobots: he was the envy of the whole school now, he girlfriend was one of the hottest girls in school, and his old Camaro had been replaced by a 2008 concept model – half the other students figured she only liked him for the cool car, nobody could really see why there were together, especially seeing as she had dumped Trent, the school quarterback for him. Sam didn't dwell on it too much, himself, he was just happy she was with him.

"Witwicky!" Trent's voice instantly snapped Sam out of his pleasant train of thoughts as the jock. _What now?_ Sam groaned inwardly. Since she'd split with Trent, he'd hounded the pair of them relentlessly, insulting her and threatening him at every opportunity. Sam jumped off Bumblebee's hood and saw Trent, flanked by two more jocks, marching straight for him.

"I advise you get in the car, Sam," Bumblebee quietly said.

"No, I'll be okay, don't worry." Sam hoped he sounded more confident than he felt.

"Witwicky, that car. I gotta admit it's even better than your old one," Trent said almost casually, despite the fact his eyes were burning into Sam's. "For such a scrawny little nerd you have good taste. You steal it?"

"No, why would I steal it, Trent?"

"You seem so good at stealing, Wierdwicky, cars, _girlfriends_." Sam sighed, no matter what he ever said or did, this moron was going to hold it over him forever.

"I didn't steal her, you brain dead jock. She's not some object, she can choose who she's with. Get it through your thick skull." Trent's jaw clenched at the jock remark, and his hands balled up into fists.

Bumblebee sensed the both Trent's and Sam's heart rates and blood pressure were rising, and their testosterone levels were peaking. The other two with Trent also had elevated heart rates, to a lesser degree. He'd downloaded files on human physiology, not to mention heard many boring lectures from Ratchet, and knew what the signs meant. This would most likely end in violence. Trent was inches away from Sam's face now, it was plainly obvious that he was going to attack Sam any moment. Normally, Mikaela was present during these confrontations, and was able to back Trent off before things escalated. Mikaela, Bumblebee knew, wasn't here right now, and he was torn between protecting Sam and remaining hidden. He decided to try and subtly distract them, and revved his engine.

The sound got Trent's attention, Trent looked at Sam's car and saw no one inside, curious as to how it had revved by itself, while the engine was off.

"How about we do a deal?" Trent said, pretending to sound reasonable. "You stole my girl, so I say it's pretty fair I get your car, don't you?"

"What? No, I"- Sam didn't manage to finish the rest of his sentence as Trent ploughed a fist into his stomach, the punch doubled Sam over in pain and he struggled for breath.

"Give me the keys, Witwicky," Trent snarled as he punched Sam in the head, knocking him over onto the tarmac. The other two jocks simply sniggered at Sam as he was sent sprawling. As he stood over Sam he bent down to take the car keys from his pocket, then pulling him up by his t shirt onto his knees and pulled his fist back, ready to deliver a knockout punch to the face.

"It's over Witwicky, feels like I've waited an eternity for this." Just before he was about to finish it, Bumblebee revved slowly rolls towards Trent, engines revving angrily. Sam used Bumbleebee's distraction and shot his fist out as hard as he could, hitting Trent squarely in the crotch. Trent fell to his knees, hunched over in shock and pain, trying to speak but the words wouldn't come out. By this time, Bumblebee had rolled right next to the pair of them and came to a stop as Sam managed to get up. Trent finally found his voice and started to rise off his knees.

"I'm gonna kill you, Witwicky!" Bumblebee casually swung open his passenger door and smacked Trent in the face, flooring him, much to the amusement of his fellow jocks.

"What the hell's going on?" Mikaela demanded as she walked out the exit and saw her boyfriend and her ex, both looking worse for wear, and concluding they'd been fighting. She hadn't seen Bumblebee's sly move and concluded that Sam had somehow won, though she couldn't for the life of her figure out how.

"Just a little misunderstanding," Sam said, wincing at the pain in the side of his head. 

Mikaela saw Sam's keys on the ground where Trent had dropped them and picked them up, and sat down in the passenger seat, while Sam took the driver's side. "Let's get out of here, Bee." Bumblebee started up and rolled out of the school grounds and onto the main road.

"What was that about?" Mikaela asked.

"Same as last week," Sam replied. "But he tried to say that because I 'stole' you from him, I should have given him Bumblebee in return."

"Asshole," Mikaela muttered. "I cant believe you managed to beat him up, Sam. No offence, I love you and all, but you're not exactly the toughest guy in the world."

"I managed to hold my own," Sam smirked. Bumblebee loudly revved his engine in reply.

"Okay, maybe Bumblebee helped out a little bit, but just a tiny bit."

"Okay, Sam," Mikaela giggled, "I believe you. I can't believe Trent, he's so stubborn. It's been months since we broke up and he still won't get over it. He's like a dog with a bone in its mouth. He doesn't even want me back, he just wants to make life hard for us."

"Why is he angry at you two mating?" Bumblebee asked, not yet fully knowledgeable on human courtship. Sam went red in the face at the mating comment, much like he did when he first met Ratchet.

"Dating, Bumblebee. Not mating, _dating."_

"Surely mating is more accurate, as that is the ultimate stage of human courtship?"

"Don't give Sam any ideas, Bee. And that's not the only reason why we're _dating. _As to why Trent's being such a jerk, he's got this stupid macho pride thing going on. He never saw me as a person, like Sam does," she rested her head on his shoulder and gave his hand a squeeze. "He saw me as a prized possession, a trophy to show off," she said bitterly, remembering all the times he called her his "little bunny," she'd hated that. "To him, Sam took his trophy away, and thus his pride. Imagine if someone stole Ironhide's cannons, same kinda thing." Bumblebee's car form shuddered as he imagined what would happen to the poor mech who tried to separate Ironhide from his beloved cannons.

"So it is more about his hurt pride than any real emotions towards you?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Mikaela replied.

"Sounds like Grimlock," Bumblebee said.

"Who's Grimlock?" Sam asked.

"He was a legend on Cybertron, a powerful warrior who was rumoured to have rivalled even Megatron in strength. He was arrogant, prideful, and inconsiderate of other mechs around him. He was obsessed with finding and terminating the Decepticon Shockwave, for revenge and lost pride."

"Sounds like Trent," Mikaela deadpanned as Bumblebee turned off the highway.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N I don't own Transformers, however much I wish I did.

To a casual observer on Earth, the objects streaking towards the Earth appeared as no more than a meteor shower. A pair of comets fell towards Nevada, followed minutes later by four more meteors in a diamond formation, descending towards North of the others and burning brilliantly as they hit the combustible atmosphere and dispersed. Any casual observers who might have spotted them wouldn't have noticed, however, that the four comets were communicating, radio waves bouncing back and forth between them. What they would have noticed, though, from a similar spot in the night sky, were two more comets appearing several hundred miles behind them, descending towards Earth in a lazy arc until a third appeared, apparently from nowhere, and smashed into one of the two front comets.

Grimlock used his body like a battering ram, slamming into Shockwave and knocking him off course. Soundwave, entering orbit and unable to turn back to help his comrade, descended deeper towards his target, aiming to land as close to Barricade's reported position as possible. Grimlock and Shockwave, however, plummeted on the same heading, and both ploughed into the ground at tremendous speed. Unlike the Autobots landing on Earth originally, Grimlock and his adversary's landing was most definitely noticed. Grimlock scanned the surrounding area and found it full of armoured vehicles, aircraft, and cannons, all firing at each other. He appeared to have landed in the middle of a battle.

Ignoring the humans and their weapons, he made a straight line for Shockwave's position, firing off his cannon and a salvo of projectiles at the purple Decepticon, aiming for the single optic in the middle of his head, as Shockwave returned fire with his cannon arm. He dodged Shockwave's shot and closed the distance between them. Grabbing Shockwave by his cannon arm, he spun and threw his opponent high into the air, firing his cannon again into Shockwave as he crashed among a group of human war machines. Injured, and needing a quick escape, Shockwave selected himself another form from among the human machines, an aircraft, all blades and missiles. He transformed and took to the air. He noticed that taking this form had provided him with a large variety of weapons; rockets, missiles, and a chain gun.

Shockwave wasted no time in spraying rounds at Grimlock, followed by a volley of missiles. Grimlock returned fire, pointing his shoulder cannon skyward and blasting at the shape Shockwave had taken. Unfortunately, the sky was buzzing with similar shapes, and Grimlock had trouble keeping track of which one Shockwave was. Two could play at that game, he decided, and selected a human alt mode for himself. A heavily armoured behemoth, armed with a massive cannon on top. Not the best thing, perhaps, to come up against an airborne fighting vehicle, but it would do. He aimed his cannon, now the main armament mounted on a turret on top, at the air and fired a long burst from it, as well as firing another missile for good measure.

The shots missed Shockwave, whose new form had made him far more agile, and Grimlock realised he would have little chance of shooting him down in this mode, yet to transform among the humans would certainly cause them to open fire on him. He doubted the humans could do him any serious damage, their weapons were primitive, though numerous. He decided in an instant that it would be worth the very small risk. He transformed whilst still in motion, the gun turret at the top splitting in half, while the front of the vehicle flattened to form his chest, a panel just 

above it opened as his head and neck raised from the opening. Arms unfolded from the armoured sides near the front, as the entire midsection of the vehicle separated, the front half raised and twisted around while the back half split and formed his legs and lower torso. The tracks had split in the middle, and now covered his shoulders and the outside of his legs from the knees down.

Thanks to the cosmetic attachments he'd created to transform himself into the fighting vehicle, his already massive form looked even more powerful, and the armour he'd grown, in addition to what he's had anyway, made his hide near impenetrable. By the time he'd finished transforming inertia had kept him sliding across the ground as he took aim with his shoulder cannon, now attached to the right half of the gun turret on his back behind his right shoulder. Aiming upwards, he scanned the buzzing aircraft - attack helicopters, the humans called them- looking for Shockwave, who had managed to blend in with them perfectly. In less than a hundredth of a second he activated a number of auxiliary sensors – realising that his optics would not be able to sense Shockwave on their own. He overlapped infrared thermal imaging over the data from his own optics and found eleven helicopters displaying heat signatures, and one that didn't.

Aiming his cannon at the chopper running cold, he launched a barrage of fire at Shockwave's form. The humans, mistaking Shockwave for one of their own, did not take kindly to this, and opened fire on Grimlock. He kicked a tank in the rear, not hard enough to cause damage to the occupants inside, but enough to swivel the vehicle around so its gun wasn't aimed at him. As more armoured vehicles approached him, he stamped down on the ground as hard as he could, cracking the ground beneath them and causing violent tremors. Again, Grimlock doubted any humans would be killed, but many of their vehicles were now damaged or overturned. The few troops still on their feet after his seismic stomp were in no mood to fight, and simply watched or tried to get out of the way.

He fired off another volley from his cannon as Shockwave approached, and bent down to pick up a human armoured vehicle.

"Get out!" He barked, as the crew rushed to comply, scared out of their minds. Grimlock picked up the heavy fighting vehicle and threw it into the air at Shockwave, striking him in the nose with a sickening _crack_ and sending him plummeting towards the ground_._ Shockwave transformed in midair, firing his cannon arm as he dropped like a stone to the ground. The shot caught Grimlock in the chest, but he kept on his feet. He moved in close to prevent Shockwave the use of his cannon arm or any other ranged weapons on him, and swung a huge fist into Shockwave's near featureless face. He felt the metal shell of Shockwave's head crack slightly with his blow. He'd missed the single optic that dominated the centre of the face, but had shaken something loose, as Shockwave suddenly appeared disoriented.

Practically smelling victory, Grimlock threw a second and third punch, each impact dented Shockwave's armoured hide. A fourth punch slammed straight into Shockwave's optic, cracking the lens and sending Shockwave into a frenzy, slashing with his arms and randomly blasting in front of him. Grimlock was shocked, to say the least. In the thousands of years that he had been hunting Shockwave, he had always known the Decepticon to have never lashed out like this. Shockwave was always cold, methodical, and calculating. He never got mad, never acted on impulse or emotion. And seeing Shockwave thrashing around in 

anger, as much as pain, momentarily threw him off, though only for an instant. His hand transformed and his energy sword extended from the end of his wrist. _Now to finish this._

Shockwave had panicked, he knew that. The blinding pain that emerged from his damaged optic had been enough to send him into a wild frenzy. His seemingly random firing had not just been a panicked act, though. Though disoriented and blind, his logical mind wouldn't allow him to lose control completely. His firing had been intended to either hit his opponent or to force him to dodge, firing at the points Grimlock would most likely be, while Shockwave disabled his Optic sensor and fell back on Doppler radar to paint him a picture of the area. It hadn't worked, however. Grimlock had anticipated where he would fire, and had either blocked the shots, or they had simply missed. He knew that Grimlock outmatched him in terms of brute force, and that he himself was more suited to long range attacks than close quarters combat against a foe of Grimlock's size and strength. In his current condition, Shockwave calculated only an eight percent chance of defeating Grimlock in hand to hand combat, and only a seventeen percent probability of beating the Autobot in his alternate mode. He did the only thing logical. He transformed and took off, Grimlock's energy sword missing him by less than a centimetre. He took to the skies, swung around to launch a diversionary salvo at Grimlock, and fled the battlefield.

Grimlock fired a number of shots after Shockwave, but none of them connected with his target, and he was forced to accept that Shockwave had escaped his grasp yet again. His mood now was fouler than usual, and when he turned around and saw a mass of human tanks and other combat vehicles surrounding him and preparing to fire, he stamped the ground harder than before, hard enough for the desert beneath the tanks to crack, violently shaking the tanks and their crews.

"Go on. Attack me, _I dare you!_" Grimlock boomed at the troops, his blue optic band glowing almost white with anger. Not one of them fired at him. "I didn't think so," he growled to himself, pathetic weaklings that they were. He'd heard Prime's message as he'd gotten closer to the Earth, and failed to recognise what Prime saw in these creatures. He simply stepped over them, transformed, and rolled away, extremely pissed off.

A/N In this chapter, the alternate mode for Shockwave, is a WAH-64 Apache, and Grimlock is a Challenger 2 main battle tank. I know that's very similar in design to Devastator in the movie, but I looked at a range of APCs and armoured fighting vehicles and couldn't see any that really screamed "Grimlock" at me like the Challenger 2. In my mind, the two look very different.


	4. Chapter 4

Two of the comets from the "meteor shower" had fallen near the edge of the Nevada desert, one near an Air Force base, but landing far enough away not to attract the attention of the personnel in residence there. The comet transformed after landing into a forty foot tall robot, sleek and agile looking. The robot sprinted away from its landing zone, trying to put as much distance between itself and the impact crater as possible, in case any curious humans had seen him land and felt the urge to come out and have a look. As he ran he realised he was approaching a human military establishment, and decided to stay low. He was frustrated that out in the middle of the flat, open desert, there was nothing he could find to copy and transform into, so he was left exposed to sight. A roaring in the night sky caught his attention, a human attack aircraft was approaching. Had they spotted him?

No, he decided, looking at the aircraft's attitude and speed, it was not an attack angle. He concentrated his optics on the airborne vehicle and zoomed in on it. It was bristling with weapons, but he was still convinced its attention wasn't on him. What looked like landing gear had started to extend from the belly of the plane. He was fascinated by it, so primitive, yet it appeared so graceful at the same time. This would be perfect for his alt mode, he realised. He scanned the aircraft thoroughly and then made adjustments to his own body, quickly taking to the skies in his new form and scanning the air waves, looking for Optimus Prime.

The second comet had landed just outside the city of Las Vegas, and had found an alternate form much faster than his counterpart. Within two minutes of landing a sleek red Ferrari F430 was speeding along the desert road towards the coordinates given in Optimus Prime's message.

"Air Raid, where are you?" As if by way of an answer, a matt grey F-16 roared past, less than twenty feet over the car, spraying it with jet wash.

"Up here, Cliffjumper. Have you located Prime's signal yet?"

"Yes, they're located outside of a town called Tranquility, in this "state", as the humans call the region. They are around two hours away at top speed."

"_Your_ top speed, 'Jumper, not mine," Air Raid chuckled as he accelerated past mach. 1, looping around in the air, amusing himself with a number of stunts.

"Stop showing off," moaned Cliffjumper. "Just get to Prime and tell him I'm on my way."

"Will do," the jet fighter replied. Don't be too long, ground pounder." With that he sped off, leaving Cliffjumper to roll along at his own speed.

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The Autobots and humans gathered in the base looked in Awe as Prime showed them the fragment of the AllSpark he had recovered. He had just informed them all of Air Raid and Cliffjumper's arrival on Earth, and that they would be here shortly. Ratchet was pleased, Ironhide had grunted indifferently, and Bumblebee was noticeably ecstatic at seeing his twin after all this time. The fact that an alien robot had a twin brother was something Sam was still trying to get his head around. Ratchet had explained to him that sometimes, sparks split in half, just like human embryos, and those sparks were then placed in separate bodies, usually of similar appearance. He had also pointed out that although from the same spark, the two were as different as could be, though he hadn't elaborated for Sam.

Everyone stared at what was left of the AllSpark, Sam was the first one to speak.

"Can you bring Jazz back with it?"

"I don't know. As you can see, it's far from what it used to be, though it does seem to be growing." Ratchet took the shard from Prime and examined it, his keep optics scanning over the AllSpark for evidence to support Optimus' claim.

"It does appear to be regenerating, and does still hold some life energy. Though I wouldn't advise attempting to revive Jazz or creating any new Autobots with it yet. I recommend waiting until it is completely restored before attempting anything."

"How can that thing regenerate itself? I don't understand," Ironhide grumbled.

"_That_ is apparent," Ratchet smirked. Before Ironhide could raise his cannons in response, Captain Lennox realised what Ratchet meant.

"It makes sense, really, the AllSpark itself must be alive, somehow." Ratchet thought about that and nodded in agreement, somewhat surprised that a human could have come up with a thought like that. Before he could say any more, Ironhide bolted upright, spilling his energon to the ground.

"Prime, incoming," he barked as he brought his cannons online and marched outside. The others ran after him, Bumblebee picked up Sam and Michaela, while Ratchet hoisted up Lennox and Epps, saving them a (relatively) long walk to the outside of the base. As soon as they were outside Ironhide had his cannons aimed upwards into the air.

"Aircraft," Ironhide grunted. "Looks like a fighter, but I detect Cybertronian energy. It could be a Decepticon."

"Hold your fire," Prime ordered to everyone in general, and Ironhide in particular, knowing how twitchy he could be in a situation like this. The fighter plane roared overhead and transformed in mid air, landing with a _boom_ on the desert floor.

"Greetings, Prime. It's been a while." Sam looked at the new transformer- surely an Autobot, from the way it addressed Optimus. It was mostly grey, and slightly taller than Prime, but more sleek and slender. He looked fast and agile, rather than strong.

"Air Raid, it's good to see you, old friend. Where is Cliffjumper?"

"He'll be here shortly. I got bored waiting for him to catch up so I flew on ahead. These Earth ground vehicles are very slow. I'm glad I found an aircraft form."

"What news from Cybertron?" Prime asked him.

_"_The Decepticons have started a civil war. Shockwave and Starscream lead opposing factions now."

"Good," Lennox remarked. "If they're fighting each other it means they'll be too busy to worry about you guys. Let them kill each other, makes your guys' job a little easier."

"Not as much fun, though," Ironhide grumbled. A Decepticon civil war would mean less Cons for him to terminate.

"You misunderstand," Air Raid said. "Both Shockwave and Starscream are on Earth. They know about the last fraction of the AllSpark."

"Air Raid, I want to know which Decepticons are on Earth, we'll need to prepare for an immediate assault." Air Raid told Prime everything he knew, which, he had to admit, wasn't a great deal. He knew Shockwave had been accompanied by Soundwave, and assumed that meant he had Rumble, Ravage, and Laserbeak with him, at least.

"Prime, there's another aircraft inbound. A human helicopter," Ratchet observed. Ironhide charged up his cannons but didn't aim them. A familiar face exited the helicopter as it landed.

"Secretary of Defence Keller," Prime greeted him, "how may we be of service?"

"Optimus, we need to talk." Keller looked upwards, noticing a new Autobot with them. "Who's he?"

Prime introduced Air Raid to Keller, who looked dubiously at the new arrival. They all went inside the base and Keller took a laptop from one of his aides. "Do you have any way to connect one of your screens to this?" Keller asked, doubting they would be happy to look at such a tiny screen as the one on his computer." Ratchet took the tiny device and initiated a wireless connection between the base's computer and the laptop. Keller took the laptop back and run a video, which linked to the massive screen on the wall.

What they saw was a pair of comets impact the desert floor amidst hundreds of soldiers, the comets revealing themselves as transformers, and then tearing into each other with reckless abandon. The one transforming into a tank was clearly stronger than the helicopter transformer, which managed to retreat after taking a battering.

"This was recorded by several soldiers earlier this evening during Exercise Dark Sky; a NATO live fire exercise involving a number of foreign troops, as well as our own. I've had the Prime Ministers of Great Britain and Canada - who've seen this footage already from their soldiers who took part in the exercise - on the phone to me, and the President, demanding to know everything we already know."

"You should tell them," Bumblebee said. "Why keep secrets from your allies?"

"That's not the point," Keller answered. "It was a miracle nobody was killed in this attack. Now I want to know who they are," he pointed at the looped image of the two robots duelling among hundreds of tanks.

"That's Grimlock!" Bumblebee said as he saw the image again, "definitely his tactics; sloppy, not caring about innocent bystanders."

"And if that's Grimlock," Ratchet observed, "the other one must be Shockwave." Keller looked totally confused. "Which one, if either, is on your side, then?"

"Grimlock is an Autobot. Shockwave, a Decepticon," Air Raid explained. Ironhide grumbled something along the lines of Grimlock _barely_ being an Autobot.

_Good,_ Prime mused. With Air Raid here and Cliffjumper on the way, they were should be able to handle the likes of Starscream's or Shockwave's Decepticons. If he could find Grimlock and bring him onside, they'd be a force to be reckoned with. _If,_ Prime knew, was a very big word.

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Shockwave flew low, hugging the desert floor, battered and in bad shape, but still alive. He'd run a diagnostic check en route to Soundwave's position, and the results weren't promising. His head had been cracked in numerous places due to Grimlock's punishing blows; his optic had almost been shattered, impairing his vision. A number of secondary sensors, including Doppler radar and infrared senses had been compromised and he'd had to shut them down. It was a sheer miracle (not that Shockwave believed in superstitious nonsense like that) that none of his neural circuitry had been damaged.

In addition to cranial injuries, the armour on his chest had been reduced to scrap; either Grimlock's cannon or missiles had nearly penetrated through his chest armour to his spark chamber, and the servos in his shoulder joint had been damaged when Grimlock had thrown him, limiting the motion of his arm. The only good news was he had plenty of ammunition left.

Although severe and debilitating, his injuries weren't life threatening, Shockwave was severely concerned about his chances of surviving another fight any time soon. His diagnostic report concluded his combat effectiveness at less than forty percent, and wouldn't reach peak fighting condition for another 94.7 hours.

Flying towards an abandoned military base in an isolated stretch of desert and following Soundwave's beacon, he quickly located the communicator, on the ground, alongside Scorponok and Barricade, the latter in his alternate mode. Shockwave landed gingerly and transformed, his injuries slowing down the transformation and making it excruciatingly painful. Since his optic was damaged, he was still relying on radar sensors and the Decepticons' own beacon transmitters to identify them.

"Hail Megatron," Soundwave greeted Shockwave with his expressionless voice, in the customary Decepticon greeting.

"Have you retrieved Megatron's remains yet?" Shockwave asked; all business as usual.

"Affirmative, Megatron is in that structure." Soundwave pointed towards a dilapidated hangar. It looked big enough to house all of the Decepticons present and conceal them from sight.

"What is his condition?"

"We attempted to revive him, with no luck," Barricade answered as he approached the two larger Decepticons, "Soundwave thinks we need the last fragment to revive him."

"I agree, but we are hardly in position to simply _take it_ from the Autobots."

"You coward, Shockwave, I'll pick that infernal Bumblebee apart."

"Yes, Barricade, according to my data, you did _such_ a good job of that last time." Insulted and taken aback by Shockwave's sarcastic comment – something he'd never seen from the usually emotionless officer- Barricade shut up and grumbled to himself.

"We cannot win outright against the Autobots, I am in no condition for combat, and with Grimlock on Earth, plus two other unidentified Autobots, the odds of our gaining the AllSpark through overt actions is less than ten percent." _Forget Grimlock,_ Soundwave thought, _Ironhide alone could wipe us all out in our current condition._

"Aww," the tiny form of Rumble moaned from Soundwave's side. "I wanna bust some Autobots." Rumble, Frenzy's twin, looked vaguely familiar; they had the same face and height, but Rumble had a more armoured, sturdy frame than his wiry, hyperactive sibling.

"Patience, Rumble. We'll all get the chance to destroy the Autobots once Megatron is revived. For now, we need to focus on retrieving the AllSpark without being terminated in the process."

"True, I guess I don't want to end up looking like you," Rumbled gloated at the fact that the "mighty" Shockwave had obviously been beaten up, badly. "Any bright ideas then on how we're going to do that?"

"Yes," Shockwave replied. "Soundwave, go to the home of this Samuel Witwicky, find out everything you can about him, try and find something we can use, leverage against the Autobots. Find something quickly, we need to retrieve the AllSpark before Starscream does. Take Rumble and Ravage with you." Soundwave transformed into his vehicle mode and sped off towards the Witwicky residence.

Shockwave walked with Barricade to the inside of the hangar to inspect Megatron's remains.

"What's his status?"

"We told you, Shockwave, Megatron cannot be revived without the AllSpark."

"I meant any other injuries."

"His injuries were extensive, but they've been healing much faster than we expected. By the time we find the AllSpark he should be completely healed, but..."

Shockwave eyed his companion coldly. "But what Barricade?"

"Are you sure we should revive him? All that raw power from the AllSpark, even if we revive Megatron, we do not know what it would have done to him... mentally." Shockwave considered this for exactly one second, before viciously backhanding Barricade, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"What you suggest is no less than treason. Lord Megatron is our leader; it is our duty to revive him, for the glory of all Decepticons." Barricade was afraid Shockwave would kill him, or go into a tirade of "hail Megatron", or both. He was glad to get away when Shockwave finally gave him orders.

"Go and spy on the Autobots, find out who these two new arrivals are and report back to me. Do not engage them under any circumstances."

"Bah, you're no fun, Shockwave," Barricade said as he transformed into his police car alt mode and drove off. Shockwave thought about Barricade's words, he'd calculated the odds of a successful revival, but hadn't thought about the chance that Megatron could be somehow diminished by the AllSpark. What if they did go to all the trouble of reactivating Megatron to find out he was now defective? He'd deal with that when the time came, he decided. Until then, he would do all in his power to restore the mighty leader to his former glory.

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**Mojave Desert**

"Why are we here, Starscream?" Thundercracker moaned for the umpteenth time. It was really starting to grate the air commander that he had to keep explaining things to his underlings.

"We're here to take the AllSpark, fool, and stop Shockwave from getting it. _I _am rightful leader now, as Megatron's second in command."

"Yes, I got that. I meant why are we _here?_ This is the middle of nowhere. We're a long way away from the AllSpark, and Shockwave."

"We're here, because it's isolated, and _because_ we're far away from the AllSpark and Shockwave. Do you really want to be close enough for the Autobots to attack us while we're under strength? We wait until Skyfire gets back, and then we attack them."

Thundercracker looked at Skywarp in doubt, Skywarp simply nodded in agreement. Neither of them had much confidence in Starscream's plan, which amounted to simply assaulting the Autobots and _taking_ the AllSpark. The Autobots, as far as they knew, had no idea they were even on Earth.

"Don't you think we should concentrate on Shockwave first? So we can fight the Autobots later and not worry about two enemies at once?" It made sense, but Starscream wouldn't allow anyone to question his ideas.

"No!" Starscream sounded like a petulant child. "We'll demolish the Autobots first, and _then_ deactivate Shockwave. _I'm _in charge here, _me!_ I don't see anyone calling you "Lord" Skywarp and Thundercracker, do you? And when we attack the Autobots, leave Prime to me."

_Okay, _Thundercracker chuckled silently, _nice knowing you, Screamer._

Before anyone could argue further, Skyfire blasted into view at top speed and pulled a massive loop, transforming in midair as he reached the top of the loop, trying to show off.

"_That's_ your alt mode, Skyfire?"

"What's wrong with it? I scanned over a human naval base and found a suitable aircraft form for my size. I searched the human "internet," and found this model also has nostalgic value, it appears many times in the human media."

"Nostalgic value?" Thundercracker and Skywarp were practically doubled over in laughter. "What are you, an Autobot?"

"What's wrong with it?" Skyfire demanded. He liked his new form, while not as sleek as the others' he could still fly circles around them.

"We scanned the pinnacle of this planet's meagre military aircraft, and you go and pick something that's outdated and obsolete, even by _human_ standards. Stay away from us in battle, Skyfire, you'll just embarrass us." Skyfire said nothing, but glowered inwardly. Skywarp was partially right; the plane was a model being phased out by the human military establishment of this nation, but only just. He thought the nostalgia the plane seemed to bring out would help him to blend in, and according to human statistics, was a more than capable fighter plane. He was sorely tempted to just leave the other three seekers to it, if they thought they were so superior.

"That's enough bickering, all of you!" Starscream bellowed, trying to sound authoritative, but simply drawing sniggers from Skywarp and Thundercracker. "We're all here now. Decepticons, take off." Starscream leapt into the air before transforming and flew towards the Nevada Desert. He could taste the glory now, the Decepticon who brought down Prime and used the AllSpark to conquer the universe, like Megatron never could. Other Decepticons would tell stories of his glory for millions of years.

A/N: This chapter isn't that great, sorry. It's more about bringing all of the Transformers into the story than anything else, more of a transitional chapter. It's been a while since I've written for this fic; I've had a lot on my plate lately, so I've not had much time for writing. Hopefully that will change soon, and chapters after this one will be better I promise.

Also, Starscream's form remains the same as in the movie; Skywarp a YF-23 Black Widow; Thundercracker, an F-35 Lightning II; and Skyfire an F-14D Tomcat. Soundwave's alt mode is a Balkan M6 mobile communications vehicle, in his standard dark blue hue. Anyways, Chapter 5 should be up fairly soon.


End file.
